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By Annette Blackwell – AAP on March 23, 2016
A “one size fits all” approach to cross-examining child sex abuse victims can make their evidence seem unreliable in criminal trials, an inquiry has been told.
The director of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute, Terese Henning, told the sex abuse royal commission on Wednesday legal requirements of the rules of evidence could impose barriers for child witnesses, including those with disabilities, and mean they are stereotyped as unreliable.
Children can be worn down by cross-examination and might agree with questions when they don’t understand them, Ms Henning said.
“So the nature of the questioning may produce unreliable evidence from them when they are in fact reliable witnesses,” she said.
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